Or last, depending on how you want to look at it. (and don't ask me why they are sideways like this, for the life of my I can't turn this picture...)
After I finished the taxes today. (I KNOW, so late...) I got to play outside and boy it felt great. I picked these turnips today although I planted them months and months ago. Proably June of 2010. I like turnips that overwinter in the garden because they are sweeter than if they don't. And it's nice to have something to pick in early spring. Turnips are satisfying to pick because they protrude out of the ground a bit and it's satisfying to pluck them from the ground. Come to think of it, it's pretty satisfying plucking anything you've grown isn't it?
Turnips grow well in my yard, I don't know why. Potatoes grow well too. Perhaps it's my slavic heritage. Or perhaps it's that turnips are easy to grow (not beets, don't get me started....I never grow good beets...) And they are so pretty too.
At this time of year I love to go to the garden store and buy new seed packages. However, this year I realized I have an awful lot of seeds already so I'm going to plant what I have before going crazy with new seeds. For instance I have snow peas (2 packages), and regular peas and sugar snap peas already. So today I planted a lot of snow peas. Tomorrow I'm going to buy some onion sets and spinach seeds but I'm going to try to reign it in a little and stick with those. I have a ton of seeds for different greens that can be planted now too.
Look at this rhubarb... It's so beautiful. It's really the only red thing growing anywhere. It's so dramatic against the rest of the yard right now. What a welcome sight.
A lot of other things are sticking their little heads up as well. I've got a ton of garlic planted, the horseradish looks crazy already even though I harvested it last fall-it's finally really established, herbs are waking up and I saw some strawberry plants that survived when I ripped them all up last year...This year I'm not hoping for any berries because the damn squirrels eat them all but I am going to keep the plants to make strawberry tea with-My friends at the museum taught me that one.
By winter I'm always ready to give up the garden for the year. By the time spring rolls around I really can't wait to start planting again. And each time I do, I'm almost surprised by how happy I am to be out there!
2 comments:
Very nice! I am glad I am not the only one with a strawberry issue...those darn squirrels eat mine every summer and I rarely get even one. They leave the raspberries alone, though. I wish I had your green thumb!
The maddening thing about the squirrels is that they actually leave the fruit on the plant until it's ALMOST ready to eat. THEN they steal it....
I've always wanted to plant raspberries and blueberries but I don't have enough room behind the fence to do that and I'm not ready to fence even more... I need to move somewhere without deer.....
As for the green thumb-I've been growing things for a lot of years now. Since before I had Emma... My early gardens didn't produce what I can today. I like raised beds and compost too. It's all about the soil. I never use Miracle Grow or anything like that because I have healthy soil. I sometimes use the terra worm compost tea if Home Depot has it on clearance.
I also rotate my crops which helps keep the soil healthy. Beans/peas give off a lot of nitrogen into the soil so they are good to put in places you would like to help out a little.
Hmmm...That was more than I meant to write... Basically, it's the soil. That's all you need to know.
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